A quick look back at NFL Week 7

Five quick takes on Week 7 in the NFL:
1. Drew Brees continues to reach new milestones. A week after he became the all-time passing yardage leader, he became the fourth player to pass for 500 touchdowns against Baltimore.The other three are Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Tom Brady. He threw for two in a 24-23 win over the Ravens. And he kept the Saints a game behind the unbeaten Rams for the best record in the NFC.
2. The league’s overtime streak continued. Each week of the season this year, there has been an overtime game.  The Bucs beat the Browns, 26-23 in overtime as Chandler Catanazaro kicked a 59-yard field goal for the game winner. It was the longest game winning overtime field goal since overtime was instituted in 1974. If he had missed it, the Browns would have had great field position. The previous long one was 57 yards by Sebastian Janikowski of the Raiders in 2008. There would have been three overtime games if the Titans had kicked an extra point instead of going for two against the Chargers and Justin Tucker of Baltimore hadn’t missed his first extra point of his career against the Saints. Since the Titans dominated the second half, coach Mike Vrabel’s decision to go for two instead of playing for overtime was not a good move. Assuming, of course, the Titans had made the extra point.
3. Philip Rivers threw for exactly 300 yards in the Chargers‘ victory in London over the Titans. He now is the sixth player in NFL history to have at least 60 300-yard passing games. The other five are Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Dan Marino and Brett Favre.
4. After a 1-2 start, the Patriots are rolling again. The Patriots scored 38 points two weeks in a row against the Chiefs and Bears to go to 5-2 and they are virtually guaranteed a 6-2 mark at the halfway point because they play the Bills next Monday night. The Patriots seem headed towards another AFC title game, this time probably against the Chiefs. The Patriots are trying to become the first team to lose the Super Bowl and win it the next season since the 1972 perfect Dolphins.
5. The Houston Texans started out 0-3 and now have won four in a row to take over first place in the AFC South after beating Jacksonville last week. They are the first team to win four in a row after starting out 0-3 since the 2011 Chiefs. They are the sixth teams to do it.

Five things to watch out for in NFL Week 7

Five things to look for in NFL Week 7:

1. New Orleans’ Drew Brees continues to reach more milestones. After becoming the all-time leader in passing yards last week, he now needs one more touchdown pass to become the fourth quarterback to throw 500 touchdown passes behind only Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Tom Brady. And if he beats Baltimore, Brees will join Manning and Favre as the only quarterbacks to beat the other 31 current teams.

Continue reading “Five things to watch out for in NFL Week 7”

Already looking like a do-or-die week for limping Jaguars

The seventh game of the season is usually much too early for a team to have a make-or-break game.

Unless that team is the 2018 Jacksonville Jaguars.

It’s hard to overestimate what the game Sunday against the Houston Texans means to the Jaguars after they lost three of their last four, including back-to-back blowout losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys.

The Jaguars came into the season with hopes of being a Super Bowl contender and looked like one when they started off 2-0, including a victory over the New England Patriots that avenged Jacksonville’s loss in the AFC title game last January.

But the Jaguars are now 3-3, and their home game Sunday will likely determine whether they have a shot to at least win the AFC South title.

Continue reading “Already looking like a do-or-die week for limping Jaguars”

A quick look back at NFL Week 6

Six quick takes on Week 6 in the NFL:

1. The NFL’s new roughing the passer rules are changing the way defensive players are playing the game. With five minutes left Sunday night and the Kansas City leading New England by three on third-and-goal at the four-yard-line, Chiefs rookie linebacker Breeland Speaks had chance to sack Tom Brady from behind to force the Patriots to take a field goal. But he let Brady escape because he thought Brady had thrown the ball and Brady scampered for a touchdown in a game the Pats wound up winning, 43-40. Speaks said he didn’t take want to take Brady to the ground because he feared a flag. “It sucks, it sucks,’’ he said. “You’re supposed to finish plays like that.’’ In the future, he said he will risk the flag and make the play. For better or worse, the NFL is fundamentally changing the way the game has been played since the days of Pop Warner.

Continue reading “A quick look back at NFL Week 6”

QB debacle means McDermott and GM need to go in Buffalo — immediately

The Buffalo Bills need to fire coach Sean McDermott.

His infatuation with quarterback Nathan Peterman has become embarrassing and a detriment to the franchise.

McDermott started Peterman for Tyrod Taylor last year at San Diego, and Peterman responded by throwing five picks in the first half. They had to bring back Taylor, who took them to the postseason for the first time since 1999 but flopped in the playoff game at Jacksonville.

The Bills then traded Taylor to Cleveland, brought Peterman back this season, signed A.J. McCarron and drafted Josh Allen.

They then traded McCarron to Oakland, leaving Peterman and Allen as their two quarterbacks.

Continue reading “QB debacle means McDermott and GM need to go in Buffalo — immediately”

Six quick takes on NFL Week 6

Six quick takes about Week 6 in the NFL:

1. The Los Angeles Rams will be aiming to extend their perfect record against a Denver team that may be in danger of having its season spin out of control. The Broncos are on the cusp of their first 2-4 start since 2011. It doesn’t help that two of the Broncos’ next three games are against currently unbeaten teams. They play the Kansas City Chiefs in two weeks sandwiched around a game against Arizona. And the future doesn’t look good for the Broncos. The Chiefs found their John Elway in Patrick Mahomes, while Elway has yet to find a franchise QB as a GM and the Broncos will now likely have to face Mahomes twice a year for the next decade. Elway got a five-year contract extension last year and a new title of president of football operations, but that long-term extension now looks like a questionable move. Elway signed Case Keenum as a free agent this year, but he hasn’t been the answer.

Continue reading “Six quick takes on NFL Week 6”

Chiefs-Patriots already looks pivotal for both teams

For years, the New England Patriots’ regular season has been a rather ho-hum affair.

The Patriots started the season knowing they were a lock for the playoffs unless Tom Brady got hurt.

The other three teams in the division haven’t had a franchise quarterback to match Brady since he arrived on the scene in 2000.

But things are different this year. For the second time in three games, the Patriots are playing a regular-season game with a lot on the line.

First, Miami came to Foxboro on Sept. 30 at 3-0. The Patriots were 1-2. A loss to Miami would have dropped them three games behind the Dolphins

Continue reading “Chiefs-Patriots already looks pivotal for both teams”

Looking back at NFL Week 5

Five quick takes on Week 5 in the NFL:

1. The NFL gets credit for scheduling the New Orleans Saints on Monday night in the fifth weekend of the season. The odds were that it would be the week Drew Brees broke the passing yards record and he did, making it a primetime celebration.  It also made an otherwise rout of the hapless Washington Redskins worth watching. He even got the record with a 62-yard touchdown pass instead of a five-yard dumpoff. That was a nice touch. Brees isn’t just putting up numbers, though. He has the Saints at 4-1, and they have to be considered a Super Bowl contender. Still, his career must be kept in context. Brees played in a passing era and is not another Johnny Unitas or Otto Graham. He’s arguably not even on the list of the 10 best passers in NFL history.

Continue reading “Looking back at NFL Week 5”

What to look for in NFL Week 5

Five things to watch for in Week 5 of the NFL:

1. Drew Brees needs 201 passing yards Monday night against the Washington Redskins to surpass Brett Favre and Peyton Manning as the league’s all-time leader in passing yardage. Brees is at 71,740, while Favre is at 71,838 and Manning is at 71,940. This says more about today’s pass-oriented NFL than it does about Brees. He probably wouldn’t make many top-10 lists of the greatest quarterbacks, but he’s been durable and consistent.

Continue reading “What to look for in NFL Week 5”

Chiefs-Jaguars might not be decided by what you suspect

The most hyped matchup of the young season will happen in Kansas City on Sunday, when the Kansas City Chiefs’ top-scoring offense will take on Jacksonville’s No. 1 scoring defense.

With Patrick Mahomes already playing like a wunderkind quarterback, the Chiefs are averaging 36.2 points a game and the Jaguars are giving just 14 points a game.

It will be the biggest test yet for Mahomes and the Chiefs’ high-flying offense.

Ditto for a Jaguars defense that has yet to face an offense as potent as that of the Chiefs.

Still, despite all the hype, this matchup may not decide the game.

Continue reading “Chiefs-Jaguars might not be decided by what you suspect”